


The Masks of Destiny

by Xiubaek13 (slavetotheking)



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Aasimar (Dungeons & Dragons), Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bard - Freeform, Changeling (Dungeons & Dragons), Eladrin (Dungeons & Dragons), Elf (Dungeons & Dragons), Fighter, Gen, Human (Dungeons & Dragons), Pirates, Quests, Ranger - Freeform, Shadar-kai (Dungeons & Dragons), Tiefling (Dungeons & Dragons), Warlock - Freeform, cleric - Freeform, druid, rogue - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 03:47:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21570289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slavetotheking/pseuds/Xiubaek13
Summary: Brought together in the town of Luskan, seven adventurers meet in the local tavern, The Cutlass, on the seventh night of the new moon as requested. They meet with Celaena, an infamous pirate captain who informs them of the concerning matters at hand. Unbeknownst to them, they have been watched since they arrived in the port. A mysterious traveler watches from the shadows, biding their time.Pairing: None. Story is Monsta X + OC, but there is no romantic pairing.Warnings: Supernatural themes, violence, blood, death (not major character), swearing, questionable morals, religion… it’s set in a fantasy world and they go on a quest and have to fight things so I’m just blanketing the warnings here.Word Count: TBAGenre: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons inspired world. Also, pirates.





	1. Chapter 1

The Clan have adventured together before, to great success. Now their presence has been requested in the town of Luskan, a pirate port in the west. They meet in one of the local taverns at night and relax after their long and arduous journey and partake in dice games, storytelling and of course, ale. Unbeknownst to them someone is watching them, waiting. The mysterious traveler observes the group, assessing their strengths, weaknesses and the perfect way to infiltrate and destroy them. That is her mission after all.

In the morning they meet with Celaena, a pirate captain with questionable morals and apparently the only person willing to converse with the group as a whole, who provides them with their quest. She tells them that it is not uncommon for people to just vanish in a place like Luskan but some of the higher ups in the town think that the choice of people is rather concerning. 7 are missing; a priest who serves Amaunator and six students of magic. There have been whisperings about ancient masks of power falling into the wrong hands. Separately these masks would be easy to defeat, but if they are being gathered together, all could be lost.

Their mission is to find out who has taken these people and for what purpose. Then the party can choose to stop whoever took them or bring them back to town for justice.

Will they succeed? Will the mysterious traveler complete their task or will they defect?


	2. Character Profiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Profiles for the members characters

**Name:** Shownu

 **Race:** Human

 **Class:** Fighter

 **Weapon Specialties:** Hand Axes and shields

 **Strengths:** Resourceful and loyal. Those who fight with him are worth dying for.

 **Flaws:** His hatred of his enemies in blind and unreasoning.

 **Background:** War has been Shownu’s life for as long as he cares to remember. He trained as a youth, studied the use of weapons and armor, learned basic survival techniques, including how to stay alive on the battlefield. He rose through the ranks and became a quartermaster, delivering discipline to others who stepped out of line.

At some point, his priorities shifted. He will always uphold the law, with logic and reason, but he thought that there had to be another way to help the realm. So he set off on his own, in search of something more. He might not have planned it but one thing led to another and he ended up joining a rag tag group. Everyone harboured their own secrets and vendettas but they worked well together, completing quests in small towns and defeating enemies who would prey on the defenseless and weak.

For Shownu, this became the rewarding life that he had sought. He would always be a soldier in his heart, but now he was leader of The Clan, a fearsome and resourceful group of adventurers.

**Name:** Wonho

 **Race:** Aasmiar

 **Class:** Cleric

 **Weapon Specialties:** Mace & crossbow

 **Strengths:** Views the pain that he went through as a strength, incredible resolve and determination. Healer. Flight.

 **Flaws:** Lack of understanding of social cues and human interaction. Has no idea why people smile so much or what the point of a hug is.

 **Background:** The experiment conducted on Wonho turned out to be a success! He is either one of the first successful subjects, or a later recipient of the perfected process, he is not sure of which. As a consequence of the experiment, he can control his appearance as part of how he communicates with others, a trait he prefers to keep hiddenfor if he is recognised, they will try to take him away to study.

As a youth he was captured by a mad scientist, who was determined to turn him into a super being, the closest thing to a god the humans had ever seen. Whilst the experiment was a success, Wonho fought against the bonds that threatened to overtake his mind and turn him against those he cared about. This came at a cost. His memory was wiped, and he now struggles to understand human interaction and social cues.

He strives to do good and to lay a helping hand where he can but internally he still battles against the darkness within, that seeks to turn him against humanity and to enact a righteous vengeance upon the realm. This inner turmoil makes him somewhat hard to approach, as he rarely speaks to strangers.

His lack of inane chatter was a welcome trait to The Clan, who took him in when they required the services of a cleric on one of their quests. He found that he understood and trusted this group, as they were all dealing with something beneath the surface. He didn’t feel so alone anymore, or quite so outcast.

**Name:** Kihyun

 **Race:** Shadar-kai

 **Class:** Rogue

 **Weapon Specialties:** Daggers, swords, crossbows, thieves tools

 **Strengths:** Resourceful and sneaky. Can adapt to any situation and conversation. Eavesdropping & lock picking are tools of the trade.

 **Flaws:** He holds secrets that others want to kill him for.

 **Background:** Kihyun has a way of learning information, its a skill really. He spent his most of his youth running from danger, quickly learning that it is not brute strength that keeps you alive, its information. From that moment forward he honed his skills, joining a thieves guild and becoming a spy.

He doesn’t work for any governing power, more he sells and trades information. He has assembled a wealth of dirt on very powerful people in the realm, something that has more recently placed a rather large target on his back. Having planned for this, he had also honed his skills in disguise and mimicry. He is used to blending into the crowd, hiding in plain sight.

He sort of just appeared in The Clan one day and got them out of a tough situation so no one ever asked any questions.

**Name:** Minhyuk

 **Race:** Wood Elf

 **Class:** Ranger

 **Weapon Specialties:** Longbows and swords.

 **Strengths:** Keen survival senses, never loses direction, attuned to nature, beast master.

 **Flaws:** Will not save those who cannot save themselves. Holds no value for money or treasures.

 **Background:** Minhyuk was raised by wolves. His elven family has been slaughtered by monsters when he was still an infant. His mother gave him to her animal companion, a large grey wolf, who took him away from the site of danger, and into the safety of a pack. Minhyuk grew up in the forest of the realm, learning the terrain and attuning himself to nature. He always felt the call of adventure but his desire to remain in the safety of the forests kept him from it for many years.

When he hit adolescence the itch became unbearable so he finally packed his things and set off, one of his pack choosing to go with him. Together they wandered across the realm, experiencing all that it had to offer. Interaction with people took longer to achieve than he expected, but the language skills were always dormant within him.

When his wolf companion was captured by smugglers he was distraught. He was too far from home to rely of the numbers of the pack and he was surely outnumbered. He begged the closest campsite for their assistance, saying that all he wanted was his wolf, they could take everything else.

Lucky for him, he’d enlisted The Clan. Within them he found a new family.

**Name:** Hyungwon

 **Race:** Seasonal Eladrin

 **Class:** Druid

 **Weapon Specialties:** Quarterstaff and shortbow.

 **Strengths:** Knowledgeable, self reliant, spell casting, one with nature, can bend the seasons to his will. 

**Flaws:** Keeps terrible secrets. Doesn’t understand social etiquette. The seasons can affect his mood and motives.

 **Background:** Hyungwon grew up in the wilds, far from civilization and the comforts of town and technology. He’s witnessed the migration of herds larger than forests, survived weather more extreme than any city-dweller could comprehend, and enjoyed the solitude of being the only thinking creature for miles in any direction.

In his time apart from the clamor of society, he found solace and purpose in studying arcane magics that he found in books lost in the forest. He’s lived a life of seclusion as he communed with nature and lost himself in his studies.

The discovery he didn’t mean to make shook him to his very core and he felt the urgent need to go to a city, multiple ones if required, to find out more. For if he was right, it could bring ruin to the world.

He was cornered by a group of bandits on his way between two cities, having been too lost in his own thoughts, failing to notice their approach until it was too late. The volatile nature of his druidic powers and his seasonal shift meant that for a passing group of adventurers, it appeared as though the forest was alive, and angry.

When they found Hyungwon, The Clan helped him recuperate as he had drained himself of his power in his efforts to stay alive. The bandits were no longer an issue for anyone.

**Name:** Jooheon/Joohoney

 **Race:** Changeling

 **Class:** Bard

 **Weapon Specialties:** Rapiers, daggers, words and music

 **Strengths:** Charismatic, excessively charming, loyal to those who accept him as he is, master of song and speech, versatile, thrives on stories (true or not) happy go lucky scamp.

 **Flaws:** Dissociative identity disorder, slow to trust, abandonment issues.

 **Background:** As a child, Jooheon was abandoned by his kin. Their final words to him were simply: “No one can know who you really are.” Since then, Jooheon has lived his life on the run, constantly evading scrutiny lest his identity be discovered.

He knows nothing of his origins; all he knows for certain is that, in order to survive, he must adapt. And adapt he has. Jooheon gathered so many personas and masks to hide his changeling identity from the world that he’s not even sure who he really is. He has spent his entire life inhabiting different personas. This has allowed him to escape detection as a changeling, but it comes at a cost. He experiences bouts of dissociative amnesia, sometimes even having the thoughts of one persona invade another.

Which persona most closely represents his true nature? Will his multiple personas help him find the truth behind his own identity?

Having no family to rely on, he lived in orphanages and the streets. During this time he developed a love of stories. He didn’t care if they were moral or true, rather, he lived for the experience and for the adventure within the tale. He decided that telling stories wasn’t too far removed from creating personas so he took up the lute and peddled his stories to anyone who would listen.

When he’d earned enough coin he enrolled himself in the Bardic College of Whispers, a place that muddled the lines between truth and lie. As questionably moral as they were, they still did not approve of changelings. When he was discovered, he fled, shifting personas like the wind and throwing himself into the nearest group of travelers that he could: The Clan.

**Name:** I.M./Changkyun

 **Race:** Tiefling

 **Class:** Warlock

 **Weapon Specialties:** Quarterstaff, light crossbows

 **Strengths:** Spell casting, determined, headstrong, values freedom and free will, loyal to those that earn it. Kinship with other slaves.

 **Flaws:** He bears the scars of his bondage and they mark him as a slave. Doesn’t trust easily, his appearance makes other avoid him (horns, sharp canines & tail).

 **Background:** As a child, I.M. was ripped apart from his family during a raid on his village. The raid’s purpose was to eliminate Tieflings from the realm as locals believed them to be demon spawn. Raiders took the young and sold them to mariners, fetching a high price due to their looks.

The mariners enslaved him, shackling him to the ships they sailed and leaving him out in the element to burn. They treated him worse than the prisoners they took, often neglecting to feed him or provide him with water. Then they would beat him if he could not perform his duties aboard the ship. Many of his brethren perished but he held out in hope of a saviour.

His saviour came in the form of pirates. They freed him from his binds and took him to the nearest port, offering for him and the others they had rescued a chance to leave and make a life for themselves. Many left, but he felt duty bound to stay.

In his time with the crew he learned what it meant to be free and in charge of your own life. They also taught him about the gods and how he could harness their power and protection. He had an awakening and became bound to one of the celestial gods. As his power grew, so did his desire to ensure that no one would ever be enslaved if he could stop it.

He departed the ship and set foot on dry land for the first time as an adult. He moved throughout the realm, freeing slaves and letting slavers feel the might and wrath of his magic.

One night, he assisted a small group who were trying to free an animal companion from bandits. He knew the animals fear all too well and helped rescue them without a second thought. Since then, he has not left The Clan.


	3. Prologue

Pairing: None. Story is Monsta X + OC, but there is no romantic pairing.

Warnings: Not much in this prologue. Mentions of hell, inciting violence, questionable morals.

Word Count: 2,645

Genre: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons inspired world. Also, pirates.

Summary: Brought together in the town of Luskan, seven adventurers meet in the local tavern, The Cutlass, on the seventh night of the new moon as requested. They meet with Celaena, an infamous pirate captain who informs them of the concerning matters at hand. Unbeknownst to them, they have been watched since they arrived in the port. A mysterious traveler watches from the shadows, biding their time.

Prologue: Told from the perspective of the mysterious traveler.

***

In the depths of the Forgotten Realms your adventure begins. A candle illuminates an aged window on the bottom floor of The Cutlass tavern. It wouldn’t have been your first choice of venue but apparently your benefactor thought popular meant good. The place was falling apart, large chunks of rotting wood made you question the structural integrity of the place. And it smelled like booze, loose lips and vomit. Even the steady falling of rain outside couldn’t mask that smell. Gods you hated pirate towns.

You sat in the corner, out of the way and out of view of most of the patrons. With your cowl and hood covering most of your face you were able to sit back and observe, a task you were exceedingly good at. You were here to complete a mission. A mission that you felt was beneath you but you weren’t about to be the one to question Grazz’t, only an idiot would do that and think it was going to go well for them.

The demon lord was not to be trifled with. Many forgot that he was one of the few to rule over multiple realms in the Abyss, and had done so for centuries, unchallenged. Just because he didn’t appear like your typical demon did not mean that you should speak freely in his presence. He was always adorned in finery, everything about him was designed to draw you in, to make you susceptible to his charms. Rather, it was the opposite. You’d learned quickly to choose your words wisely with him. He was more skilled than any politician when it came to making deals and twisting words, hell he even manipulated other demons to keep himself amused. He enjoyed making you think that you’d bested him, gaining the upper hand in a deal only for him to lay all of his cards on the table at the last moment, showing you just how fucked you were.

This made some think that he wasn’t to be feared in combat. They were wrong. He won’t kill with brute force but he’ll turn you against your allies and force you to kill them before killing you himself. He was the ultimate tactician and manipulator and you were one of his best students.

Being one of his best was why you felt this task was beneath you. Your instructions were straight forward enough, follow the party, gain their trust, join them and sabotage their mission without them knowing. It was a mission that any acolyte could complete. There was something more at play here, there always was when Grazz’t delivered missions to you personally. The glint in his eye had hinted at it. Until you worked out what the ulterior motive was, you watched your marks.

This kind of mission should have gone to your sister Calaena, and would have if she’d been smart enough to serve Grazz’t. She didn’t have as much hatred for do gooders as you did. Your past experiences spoke for themselves and you learned from them. ‘Heroes’ were never to be trusted. Your sister and you had very different upbringings, you were always the perfect evil child while she was only ever half in on it. Her heart wasn’t as dark as yours and she was far more aloof. She would never serve a higher power, only herself. In some ways you envied her, especially when you were serving Lilith but once you had your exodus from the Underdark and found yourself in the servitude of Grazz’t you found a new purpose in life. A chaotic evil purpose. It pleased your dark and twisted little heart. Caleana had other ideas for herself once she escaped, commandeering a ship that she felt befit her and set sail. She was infamous as a master pirate thief. You never sought the infamy or recognition. All you strived for was the thrill of destroying those who thought they could make a difference. How naive they were. Dragons ruled this land for centuries for a reason.

***

Morons you think to yourself as you watch five adventurers make no effort to divert attention from their presence. There are two others in their group but at least the rogue and druid have the decency to avoid being the centre of attention. It was as though they were asking for the attention of everyone in the tavern, something that you would never do. You work in the shadows, unseen and unheard.

You turn your focus back to the troupe as you continue your assessment of each party member. At least this group was diverse. Sipping his ale and telling tales of the war is a tall and broad man, must be human. It didn’t matter where in the realm you were, there was always a fucking human. Why is it always a soldier? Do their armies not keep them loyal so the defect and set their own agenda? Almost every human you encounter has the same story, something about strength and purpose and a razed village, helping on a small scale or a sick relative. How boring. He should be easy to manipulate. Humans were prone to strong emotional reactions and illogical tactics.

The second being is a little surprising, if you were less skilled you would have picked him as the muscle of the group but the pouch of runes and herbs by his side and the Morningstar resting against his leg tell you he is a divine healer of sorts. This one requires a more in depth look, you recognise the slight shimmer around him as a glamour, one that is hiding more about him. You catch a glimpse of his ruby red eyes and wonder what he is. He seems quiet, gambling like he has no understanding of the game that he’s playing. Divine healers tend to serve a God and could usually sense evil. He was one you would clash with the most. You’d be wary of hiding your true nature from him lest he try to save you. The wide berth people were giving his back makes you think that his glamour is hiding either an object kept behind him, or wings. You kind of hoped that he was one of the sky people, for you had not encountered one of those yet. A feather from one of those wings would be worth more than its weight in gold.

Long blonde hair, a quiver full of arrows and a bow slung over his shoulder. You grimace at the pointed ears, recognising the wood elf quickly. Putting your kind’s history with the elves aside, this one was no doubt a ranger. They’re usually too perceptive for their own good but this one seems to be fully engrossed in dice games so at this stage you’re not concerned about him. He is different to the other elf rangers you’ve encountered in the past. They were all quiet, observing types, whereas this one is currently growling at the pirate who just beat him at their game. It’s almost animalistic but also childlike in its quality. It’s as though he was raised outside of an elven community. Something to delve into at a later date. 

The last 4 additions are interesting to say the least. A changeling was always irritating, slipping their skin constantly, chameleons of personality. Why this one felt the need to also be a bard on top of that makes you unreasonably irritated, you just hope he doesn’t have a familiar too. He seems a little over the top and manic as he holds the attention of a crowd of pirates, weaving a fine tale about the rescue of a mystical wolf. He’s good, you’ll give him that. Further down the table the human chuckles and shakes his head at the bard’s epic tale. As good as he is, you can’t help but feel like there is something off about him, something you can’t quite put your finger on yet.

Tieflings are always a wild card, even more so when they have magical abilities. No matter how small, there is always a part of them that is demonic. They can never be wholly ‘good’ no matter how hard they try. Society would never believe that someone who looks they way a Tiefling does – horns, tail, elongated canines, solid eye colour and otherworldly skin tone – could be divine in nature. The one seated at the bar has rather small horns for his kind, his skin a very pale blue hue, and his eyes are solid gold. There is no point in using magic to hide his tail, and the pirates don’t seem to care. They are far more interested in the man himself, some speaking as though they have a history with him. It was rare to see a Tiefling so at ease with the people around it. You spot the scar on his throat, and catch a glimpse on similar markings on his wrists. Slave you think to yourself.

The autumnal Eladrin was more concerned with his surroundings than the people in them, staring off into the middle distance when a thought captures his attention. You feel similarly about him as you do the elf. Neither have a good history with your kind but spotting the druid makes one part of your travels here considerably clearer. It should be the middle of summer, it was until two nights ago, but when you had woken up the world was suddenly in the middle of autumn. At least you now understand what had happened. He held a quarterstaff and had odd runic shapes decorating his arms, usually common for a forest druid. As long as you refrained from harming nature when he was around he shouldn’t pose too much of a threat to you.

The one that you need to watch the most is the last member of this rag tag group. He is dressed similarly to you, all black with a hood and cowl, daggers visible because you know where to look for them. He is observant, eyes assessing the room, lingering over you for a moment before continuing to scan the crowd. There is no doubt in your mind of what his role is, like recognises like after all, but he has another agenda. A fellow rogue always makes things interesting. He’s sitting away from the rest of the group, half hidden by shadow as he watches the bar. If he’s any good he’s already assessed routes to the exits and identified the marks that are likely to cause their party harm. He’s probably found exits for all of them unlike you, who only has to look out for yourself.

He leans in towards the pirate captain who sits beside him and smirks, muttering something that makes the captains eyes widen so much that they almost threaten to fall out of his head. He slides a handful of coin to the rogue before hastily departing. The actions don’t mark him as a textbook thief or assassin to you, it seems like he deals more in information. The pale skin, black hair and black eyes let you know that he is a Shadar-Kai, a race not unlike your own, but cunning, sneaky and highly skilled. Under different circumstances you might get along with him but you would have to mislead and fool him if you were going to succeed in your mission.

And you had every intention of succeeding. Now that you’ve completed your initial assessment of your marks, you figure there is no better time than now to test them. It was one thing to observe how they act on a night off, but it was a whole different thing to observe them when presented with the opportunity to fight. Not a planned fight either, not something they could prepare for. You find that a decent bar brawl never fails to show you someone’s true colours.

Pirates are almost always ready to throw down, drunken pirates even more so. They’ll throw more than punches too, things have a tendency of escalating quickly when there’s pirates involved, a fact that you are more than happy with at this moment in time. You grin to yourself at how easy it will be to get this altercation underway. You murmur to the man at the table next to you that the large, dim witted pirate near the bar keeps giving him the stink eye and that you’d even heard him tell the barkeep that only impotent men were bald. 

Leaving him to seethe and mutter about how he’ll make the big man regret his words you start to duck and weave through the crowd as you make your way towards the bar, stopping only to tap a large brute of a man on the arm. You draw your hood back, revealing your long white hair, pointed ears and dark skin – the tone changing depending on the light (right now it is a lovely shade of greyish purple) but it could range between obsidian to hues of blue and purple with greys in between. He turns angrily, ready to yell at whoever touched him but when he spots you he takes pause.

“You look like the strongest man here.” You smile sweetly up at the man, angling yourself towards him so that only he can hear what you say to him.

He puffs his chest and beams down at you. “Well little lady, yer lookin at the champion arm wrestler in these parts. So not only do I look the strongest, I is.” He flexes his arms for good measure and honestly, he does look like he has the strength of ten men, it’s why you chose him.

You let your features shift into confusion. “See I thought that you looked like a strong man but that guy over by the window, the bald one laughing with the two bandits, he said he’s the strongest in the realm.”

You barely finish your sentence before the man in front of you starts to seethe. “Oh does he?!” He exclaims, cracking his knuckles and doing a few minor stretches, all good signs that your plan is working.

Nodding you reply. “He does, I’ve heard him tell so many people but I don’t think I believe him. How could he be stronger than you?” You gesture at the man standing before you, pointing to his muscles and then wave dismissively at the unsuspecting man in the corner.

The man hands his ale to you. “Wouldya mind holding me drink for a sec little lady?” You don’t exactly get a chance to accept or deny his request before his drink is in your hands and he is marching off to the other end of the room. You set it down on the table nearest to you and continue to move through the crowd until you are at the other end of the tavern, at a table with the perfect view of the mayhem that is poised to unfold. You chose this seat for its view but also because it’s next to an open window should you need to make a quick getaway.

No words are spoken, you thought there might be a challenge or a threat but instead the big man simply punches the bald man in the face then throws him across the room. The sudden moment of violence is all the tavern needs before cacophony erupts. Pirates start yelling and fighting, furniture is smashed and thrown, and anything and everything is suddenly a weapon.

With their pleasant evening ruined, the party find themselves in the middle of a bar brawl in a pirate bar. How they manage themselves now is going to be very helpful for you. You smile to yourself as they exchange a few quick looks at each other, speak two words then disperse into the fray.

Everything is going to plan.

A/N: Let me know what you think so far. What do you want to know more about? What do you think will happen? I’m trying not to bombard you with lore but if you want to know more about certain aspect of the characters or the world, please ask me! I’m trying something different so hopefully you enjoy it.


End file.
